Firemouth Cichlids dying
- Thread starter OutbackJack
- Start date
I used to have those but everyone told me to get the master kit with the tubes. lol
I agree with this, but also know from many years of first-hand experience that there are many species than can acclimate and live long healthy lives outside some of their local native water parameters. Domestic fish bred in ponds & vats in Florida go back more than just a few generations. The plasticity of some of the Rift Lake cichlids gut intestinal length is a prime example of how a fish can morph under captive conditions, eating in captivity what a biotope policeman would shudder at. Numerous papers on this subject over the past 20-30 yrs.
Certainly this doesn't work out long term for many species, such as some of the blackwater fish, but I also don't think that we need to throw the baby out with the bath water, in every single case.
@OutbackJack - I was being a wise ass. It wasn't directed at you.
Yea, you're good. I currently have the temp at 75F and I'd say its got good oxygenation. I got a pretty decent bubbler, a wave maker. and an HOB so I figure that's pretty good surface agitation lol
It’s not wild caught so having specific parameters isn’t gonna make the fish die it says they can be in ph 6.5-8 I had firemouth in a 7.1 ph tank but 7.3 from the tap and it flourished in my tank
Of course, I also keep fish from different habitats together in the same tank without any problems. I was just giving an example of what could happen because he mentioned that his water quality is really good. The water has a lot of parameters besides just pH, and even tap water from different sources can be different, even within the same country.
Taking this another step into aquarium oblivion,
because I am retired microbiologist, and it was my area........it's not simple pH that directly and acutly affects a complibated organism like a fish.
It how it affects simple organisms like pathogenic bacteria, that are competely at the mercy of, and influenced by a water parameters such as pH.
A fish evolved to live in soft, low pH water, developes resistance to those soft water, low pH pathogens over millenia. in the Rio Negro, or Orinoco such as Heros, or Astonotus.
It however doesn't need to have immunity to hard water, high pH pathogenic species.....it doesn;t need to.,
probably why we see so many Oscars with chronic HITH when kept in hard water. (even after a century of aquarium husbandry
Same goes for a species like Thorichthys meeki, or rift lake African, that have evolved to live the hard, high pH waters of the Yucatan, or Lake Malawi.
It doen't need to build up immunity to the bacteria found in soft water, with low pH it doesnt need to. (Malawi bloat anyone?)
So what happens when these species are mixed, in one type of water or the other,
one........may get the short end of the pathogenic stick.
A lot of good info here.
I was doing acclimation with a different understanding! My approach is "wrap 'em in a blanket' and make the qt tank as cozy as possible. I pull substrate from the main tank and place into qt. I also keep scraps and leftover fake plants for division and hiding. Another thing I find effective is suspending fish in a clear container in their new home for a few hours so everyone can get introduced before I release them. It's fun seeing the natives check out their new tankmates.
I know there's been some debate over liquid vs strips for water testing but I've found virtually no difference in the test results if the strips are kept dry, not old, and stored properly. Plus I'm amazed nobody ever mentions the toxicity issues with the liquid tests (which was the main reason I backed off from them).
I've never kept fish in an 'empty' tank...makes no sense to me at all. It's like being in a bare hospital room wearing an open gown while sitting on cold tile.
I was doing acclimation with a different understanding! My approach is "wrap 'em in a blanket' and make the qt tank as cozy as possible. I pull substrate from the main tank and place into qt. I also keep scraps and leftover fake plants for division and hiding. Another thing I find effective is suspending fish in a clear container in their new home for a few hours so everyone can get introduced before I release them. It's fun seeing the natives check out their new tankmates.
I know there's been some debate over liquid vs strips for water testing but I've found virtually no difference in the test results if the strips are kept dry, not old, and stored properly. Plus I'm amazed nobody ever mentions the toxicity issues with the liquid tests (which was the main reason I backed off from them).
I've never kept fish in an 'empty' tank...makes no sense to me at all. It's like being in a bare hospital room wearing an open gown while sitting on cold tile.